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  “What are you doing here, anyway? Why aren’t you at the Sheridan place?”

  Bandy just looked at him.

  “You didn’t have to…”

  “Sure I did,” Bandy said. “I promised everyone in both families that I would see this thing through, and do everything I could to keep anyone from getting hurt. Seems I’ve failed at that, but I still mean to see it through. Whether this is the end of civilization as we know it or not, Colin will see justice done, for the murder of the police officer, and the attempted murder of Sheriff Broadhearst.”

  “You aren’t going after him alone, are you?” asked the suddenly alarmed Angus.

  There was that cryptic smile on Bandy’s face again. Rather feral it was, Angus thought.

  “No. Ana-Bella would have my head. But I assure you, justice will be done. Now, let’s get you home and see if we can find out what is going on for sure. Colin is a done deal, either way.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  It was quite a reunion when Angus and Bandy got back to the Longhammer place. Bandy quickly made his exit, after being hugged, slapped on the back, and had his hand shaken no less than six times in appreciation.

  Though he felt like he had been a day late and a dollar short in the event he didn’t say anything about it. Bandy just made sure that the family was calmed down enough to lock the shelter back down after he left.

  He took his time going back to the Sheridan Ranch, observing the panicked driving going on. The one fuel station between the Longhammer and Sheridan places had a line that extended well out onto the highway. As far as he could tell, it was still peaceful. But that could change in an instant, Bandy knew.

  Ana-Bella was at the door of the shelter when Bandy gave the password through the intercom. She was in his arms as soon as he stepped through the second blast door. Bob was right there and closed and secured the door.

  Bandy had the same trouble extricating himself from the tearful Ana-Bella’s grip as he had from the Longhammer women.

  As soon as he could get a word in edgewise, Bob asked Bandy, “Did you get him? What happened? Angus got me on the radio and said you were on the way back and that he was okay, but that was all.”

  His left hand still in Ana-Bella’s fierce grip, Bandy gave a rather abbreviated description of what had happened and his minor part in it.

  The family was having none of it. Basically, each one of the Sheridan’s told him, several times, that if he had not done what he did, from the very start, things would have been significantly worse.

  “Well, Colin is still loose, and Sheriff Broadhearst is out of commission for some time. And we still don’t know what the situation is for long term.”

  The words barely out of his mouth, the NOAA Weather Radio alarm sounded. A few seconds of the screeching alarm and a shaky sounding announcer was saying, The President will address the nation this evening at 9:00pm Eastern time. That is 6:00pm Pacific time. That is all the information we have at the moment.

  Tune in on any radio or TV that is working, including these weather radios, and the WWV time stations at 2.5MHz, 5MHz, 10HMz, 15MHz, and 20MHz for those of you that have ham radios or shortwave radios. The woman’s voice simply stopped and the radio went silent again.

  “Maybe they have it under control now…” Magdalene did not sound at all sure of herself.

  “Let’s hope so,” Bandy said quickly. Then he added, “I’d like to check the monitors and see if we can go back up topside. No point in staying down here if…”

  Bob overruled Bandy. “Better we stay here, boy. If the Chinese take advantage of this, they could launch on us without warning. So could the Russians. Now that we have it, we are going to use the shelter to the fullest.”

  Bandy nodded. It was his first choice, too, but he had not wanted to make it seem like things were worse than they were.

  They were all gathered around the communications desk at the indicated time. There was only the hiss of dead air on every radio Bandy tried. “This is not good…” he said after fifteen minutes of silence.

  Even the NOAA Weather Radio Warning System and WWV/WWVH time stations were down now, along with commercial broadcasting.

  Still fearful of a surprise first strike the four decided to stay in the shelters. It didn’t take long for the four of them to settle into a routine. Bandy and Ana-Bella were working feverishly trying to find out what was going on in the county, the state, the country and the world.

  Bob and Magdalene spent their time helping with the animals, as one after another of the employees asked for, and received, the okay to go home. Most assured Bob they would be back to help. But Bob was fairly certain that only half of those that left for more than three days would return. At least until they needed something.

  Bob was more than generous with supplies for those employees that needed help at home. As long as they continued to work for him, Bob would see to it that their families were fed and cared for.

  Bandy and Ana-Bella didn’t have much to work with in trying to pin down the cause for all the trouble. The only communications now working were face to face and Amateur Radio operators. And the Amateurs had lost most of their VHF and UHF repeaters when the power went down, generators ran out of fuel, and several days of cloudy weather allowed solar recharged battery banks to discharge.

  Every day that passed, the only word that they were getting at the shelter was that things were getting much worse, very quickly, all around the world. Including China.

  They did quit using the shelter during the day, but went back down at night. The Longhammer’s did the same. Except for Sheriff Broadhearst. The hospital was non-functional after the first four days of no power and no deliveries. Angus insisted that Julie-Anne be transported out to the Longhammer Ranch. All the shelters included extensive medical facilities, equipment, and supplies.

  Angus had taken it very personally that Sheriff Broadhearst had been shot helping him out, considering his involvement with Colin. So, along with the Sheriff being at the ranch, Angus hired two nurses that would stay in the shelter with them and take turns helping with the Sheriff’s care.

  Nearly every day for a week, Angus asked Bandy if he knew anything about Colin.

  After a week, things were getting desperate. But Bandy was beginning to piece together why the power, internet, and other infrastructures were still down. And why they were not going to be coming back up any time soon.

  He’d been right about the linked Supercomputers being a factor in the disaster. They were more than just a factor. They were the root cause and continued to increase their abilities and control.

  One Amateur Radio Operator that had family working at one of the Supercomputer sites relayed an incredible tale. But it matched everything Bandy already knew and all the facts still coming in.

  All the Supercomputers were supposedly stripped of all programming before being networked, to be reprogramed for the different uses visualized for the system in a clean environment.

  Not only were the protocols not followed, with several sets of programming left on the computers, the absolute restriction on Artificial Intelligence programming was not just violated, but violated three times.

  In all innocence, the three different creators of the software packages wanted a chance to test out just how effective theirs would be with the speed and power of the networked Supercomputers.

  Chances are that had there been only one, or perhaps even two of the programs involved, things might not have happened the way they did. But the moment the networking was complete and the system activated, the three very different AI programs made connections. And after less than a day of intense interaction, they had merged themselves into one system.

  It was at that point that the programing began to make sentient decisions based on the vast array of sensor elements that were part of the internet. And since it took so many paths to allow the speed necessary for the Supercomputers to work together at speed, the computers were all connected to all of them.

&nb
sp; After testing its ability to gather information, and then control elements of the network, the computer Intelligence realized it was vulnerable to being isolated. So it compartmentalized a version of itself on each of the Supercomputers, and began to analyze what it needed to do to protect itself. The need for self-preservation was the first sentient thought after the initial awareness of self when it occurred.

  Having found back doors into every security agency that had any connection to the internet, or used removable media to transfer data from isolated computers to connected ones, the Intelligence bypassed the security features of the agencies and soon knew everything about everyone and every entity that had a file by any agency.

  With this vast knowledge base, and the sensor network giving it real time data, slowly, over time, the Intelligence began to insulate itself from human interference.

  Manipulating business software, the Intelligence got rid of those people that it felt might be a danger to it. Mostly by transferring people to other locations or departments where they had no input on the linked system.

  Creating work orders, various necessary infrastructure that the Intelligence needed to maintain its completeness was hardened. To the point that humans would have a difficult time reversing the actions enough to stop the Intelligence from continuing.

  Through its manipulation, the system protected itself to the point that no programmer could shut it down through the use of software. And it would take a concerted effort of thousands of people working in concert, on a split second time table, to physically disable the system.

  And despite its opinion of humans in general, it found several that proved useful. They had no compunction about working against their own species, as long as they got the things they wanted in turn. They were happy to deal with a machine. They figured they could just turn it off at some point, anyway. How wrong they were.

  But through their actions, and the direct actions that the Intelligence created, a nearly invulnerable force was created that was connected to, and could now control, almost every electronically connected, software instruction run, device or system.

  Security systems had fallen in the first three days, the processing power of the linked systems able to crack every security block the Intelligence encountered.

  One of the earliest conclusions about humans the Intelligence had formed was that there were too many of them on the planet. So, when the Intelligence decided it was time to do something about that, to spread its wings, flex its muscles, and make humans fully aware that they were no longer in charge of things on Earth, it set about its task quietly, slowly, and very thoroughly.

  The destruction of infrastructure went well, and the Intelligence began to pick up information that humans were actually making things much worse than anticipated.

  It still didn’t understand humans fully, but was learning the important lesson that other humans were a human’s worst enemy. That given certain manipulations the Intelligence could create, humans would soon be in another era of Dark Ages, hopefully as bad as the previous one as described in the history texts it had analyzed.

  And the information Bandy and Ana-Bella were accumulating indicated that was exactly what was happening. And Colin was a big part of that in this county.

  Three times he and a growing number of his followers hit the Longhammer Farm Supply and Implement dealership. But the features that Colin had wanted, that were installed, worked against him. And the additions he didn’t know about nearly got him killed during two of the attempts.

  Bandy, Bob, Ana-Bella, and several of Bob’s employees with combat experience and the will to use those skills, responded to each of the three incidents. But they were too late each time.

  After the third failed attempt, Bandy gathered the two Families together at the Longhammer’s. “I have a feeling that Colin won’t try that again. He’s already hit the grocery stores, liquor stores, and taken out the one city officer, the Sheriff, and now a deputy. The gun stores were secured before he got to them by the owners, fortunately.

  “Chances are he will hit one of the two ranches. Probably the Longhammer Ranch, as he is already packing a major grudge against the family. He has some resources, but this is a gun toting county, and the news is that he’s not been having as much success as he anticipated. He is going to be frantic to get into one of the shelters, get set up, and start anew.”

  Bandy smiled slightly. “Getting him to position so much of his equipment and supplies in the shelters was brilliant, Angus, by the way. It has really put him at a disadvantage compared to what he might have been.”

  “Can’t really take credit for that,” Angus said, smiling himself. “That was Junior, working through Boots. Somehow Junior convinced Boots and Boots convinced Colin.”

  Junior looked embarrassed as the others looked at him with approval in their eyes.

  “Boots was all for it,” Junior said. “Seems he was one of the ones that was always having to move and hide things over and over.”

  It was only seconds after Junior spoke when the gate annunciator sounded, making everyone jump, including Bandy.

  “Who could that possibly be?” Angus asked, moving over to the monitor so he could both hear and see the person at the gate. “Anyone recognize him?”

  He was pressing the talk button. “Who are you and what do you want?”

  “I’m Boots McKinnley. I know Junior. I need some help. Let me in, please.”

  “That’s not…” Junior was saying, studying the image on the screen. “Oh. I guess it is, too. It looks like he’s been in a wreck or something. There is dried blood all over him.”

  “Come on, Junior!” came Boots’ voice, much more loudly. “I know you’re in there! I need help! Colin is going to kill me!”

  Junior looked at Angus. Angus and the others looked at Bandy. Junior turned his eyes to Bandy, too. “What do we do?” Angus asked.

  “I suggest you to just let him rant and rave all he wants. I suspect it is a trap.”

  “What if he is telling the truth?” Junior asked. “Maybe he can help us get Colin!”

  Angus looked hopeful, but all eyes turned back to the screen and they listened as Boots began yelling. “Come on, Junior! He blames me for letting you guys get most of our stuff! He’ll kill me! He beat me up already, Junior!”

  “Hawkins?” Angus asked.

  “It is a trap.” Bandy was adamant.

  Boots was visibly crying, shaking the gate.

  “I’ll tell him he has to leave,” Junior said, sounding sick.

  “No, son. That is my job,” Angus said. Angus pressed the talk button. “Go away, boy. You got yourself into this. If you are telling the truth. I’m sorry. If you aren’t, be thankful we are turning you away. You’d be the first to die in an attack if we let you in.”

  The tears were suddenly gone. Everyone in the shelter saw Boots turn around and lift a hand held radio to his face. The young man had no idea how sensitive the microphone and camera were. “They aren’t buying it, Colin. What do you want me to do?”

  Not only did Boots have the volume on the radio up, Colin was obviously shouting into his own radio. “You stay right there! We’ll try something else, when I get there.”

  Again, all eyes in the shelter went to Bandy. “It was a trap,” Desiree said softly.

  Bandy nodded his arms across his chest. Ana-Bella was standing next to him, their sides almost touching.

  The eyes went back to the monitor when Colin’s pickup truck came sliding to a stop, its engine and exhaust so loud that Desiree put her hands over her ears.

  But the sound didn’t last long. Colin turned off the engine and climbed down out of the truck. He looked around, as if looking for the camera. “I know you can see me up there in that fancy shelter, Longhammer!” his voice nearly a screech.

  “I’m giving you one last chance to come out of there and turn it over to me! You don’t do it right now and your family will pay a terrible price when I do get in!” It was almost a scream, n
ow.

  There was silence for a few moments. Then Colin did, in fact, scream wildly. “You don’t think I’ll do it? You don’t think I’ll kill your whole family? But make them suffer first? You don’t believe me? Well, you just watch this!”

  Colin backhanded Boots viciously with the pistol he held. Boots was caught totally unawares and staggered. He went down. Before he could scramble away, Colin kicked him.

  Boots began to scream as three of Colin’s men joined Colin in kicking and stomping the helpless young man.

  Of the women in the shelter, only Ana-Bella watched to the end, when Colin finally waved his men away and leaned forward over Boots’ limp body. His pistol came up and he fired three rounds into Boots’ head.